The Fraser Institute is a libertarian think tank based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Fraser Institute is an associate member of the right-wing State Policy Network (SPN), and was featured in SPN's Associate Member Updates in July/August 2017. [1] Additional reports, ranking and index information about the Fraser Institute are featured in SPN's Associate Member Updates [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]

In response to CMD's report, SPN Executive Director Tracie Sharp told national and statehouse reporters that SPN affiliates are "fiercely independent." Later the same week, however, The New Yorker's Jane Mayer caught Sharp in a contradiction. In her article, "Is IKEA the New Model for the Conservative Movement?," the Pulitzer-nominated reporter revealed that, in a recent meeting behind closed doors with the heads of SPN affiliates around the country, Sharp "compared the organization’s model to that of the giant global chain IKEA." She reportedly said that SPN "would provide 'the raw materials,' along with the 'services' needed to assemble the products. Rather than acting like passive customers who buy finished products, she wanted each state group to show the enterprise and creativity needed to assemble the parts in their home states. 'Pick what you need,' she said, 'and customize it for what works best for you.'" Not only that, but Sharp "also acknowledged privately to the members that the organization's often anonymous donors frequently shape the agenda. 'The grants are driven by donor intent,' she told the gathered think-tank heads. She added that, often, 'the donors have a very specific idea of what they want to happen.'"[11]

A set of coordinated fundraising proposals obtained and released by The Guardian in early December 2013 confirm many of these SPN members' intent to change state laws and policies, referring to "advancing model legislation" and "candidate briefings." These activities "arguably cross the line into lobbying," The Guardian notes.[12]

Ties to the Koch Brothers

In 2014, Daniel Tencer of The Huffington Post Canada reported that the Koch Foundation had made several large donations to the Fraser Institute, which may have impacted Canada's environmental policies and legislative decisions. [15]

In 2012, Alexis Stoymenoff of the Vancouver Observer reported that The Fraser Institute accepted $500,000 from the Koch Brothers over a four year period. She wrote, "According to U.S. tax documents, The Fraser Institute received $150,000 from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation in 2008, $175,500 in 2009, and another $150,000 in 2010. The grants were purportedly for "research support" and "educational programs." [16] Furthermore, according to Stoymenoff, "Prior to 2008, the Institute received another $25,000 in funding from the Claude R. Lambe Foundation, which is under the umbrella of Koch Family Foundations." [16]

ALEC is a corporate bill mill. It is not just a lobby or a front group; it is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, corporations hand state legislators their wishlists to benefit their bottom line. Corporations fund almost all of ALEC's operations. They pay for a seat on ALEC task forces where corporate lobbyists and special interest reps vote with elected officials to approve “model” bills. Learn more at the Center for Media and Democracy's ALECexposed.org, and check out breaking news on our PRWatch.org site.

Ties to the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation

In the February 2015 issue of the On-Lion Letter, the Bradley Foundation advertised the Fraser Institute's economic training programs, and expressed their support for the Fraser Institute: "The Fraser Institute is an associate member of the State Policy Network, which is also supported by Bradley." [18]

History

In 1974, a group of academics and business executives, concerned about big government, founded the Fraser Institute. [19]

At the time, there were concerns about the institute's agenda given that one of those who helped set it up, Michael Walker, an economist from the University of Western Ontario, had received financial support from the forestry giant, MacMillan-Bloedel. To allay these charges, the Fraser Institute emphasized three key points: 1) Its research priorities would be determined by its staff, not its funders, 2) Its research would be based on sound methodology and facts. To ensure this, an Editorial Advisory Board would be established. 3) No institute staff would engage in political activity, and the institute's conclusions would not be modified to favour any political or economic group." [19]

In his book Thinking the unthinkable, Richard Cockett outlined that Antony Fisher, who founded the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) played a critical role in the development of the Fraser Institute. "On the strength of his reputation with the IEA, he was invited in 1975 to become co-director of the Fraser Institute in Vancouver, founded by the Canadian businessman Pat Boyle in 1974. Fisher let the young director of the Fraser Institute, Dr Michael Walker, get on with the intellectual output of the Institute (just as he had given free reign to Seldon and Harris at the IEA) while he himself concentrated on the fund-raising side," Cockett wrote. [20]

On page 2 of its 2005 Annual Report, the Fraser Institute features a photograph of Michael Walker with US Vice President Dick Cheney at the Eisenhower Administration Building, followed by a photograph of Canada's "future Prime Minister" Stephen Harper attending the Institute's annual general meeting.

The Fraser Institute's list of Senior Fellows includes Tom Flanagan, originally of Ottawa (Illinois), who is a professor of political science at the University of Calgary. Tom Flanagan was campaign manager to Prime Minister Stephen Harper when he headed Canada's newly formed Conservative Party in federal elections in 2004, and then again in 2005, when the Conservatives won a minority in government.[citation needed]

Other senior fellows of the institute have been deeply involved in political activity Preston Manning is the founder of the right-wing Reform Party in Canada, which later merged with the Progressive Conservative Party to form the new Conservative Party, led by Stephen Harper who became Prime Minister in 2006. Former Conservative Premier of the province of Ontario, Mike Harris, is also a fellow at the Fraser Institute. [19]

There are also questions about how much the institute's work is shaped by its corporate funders. In 1999, the Fraser Institute sponsored two conferences on the tobacco industry: "Junk Science, Junk Policy? Managing Risk and Regulation" and "Should government butt out? The pros and cons of tobacco regulation." [19]

Climate Change Denial

The Fraser Institute has published material skeptical of climate change science since at least 2001, which marks the publication of Global Warming: A Guide to the Science by Willie Soon and Sallie L. Baliunas The abstract states: "There is no clear evidence, nor unique attribution, of the global effects of anthropogenic CO2 on climate. Meaningful assessments of the environmental impacts of anthropogenic CO2 are not yet possible because model estimates of global and regional changes in climate on interannual, decadal and centennial time-scales remain highly uncertain." [21]

The Fraser Institute published an Independent Summary for Policymakers[22] (ISPM) on Feb. 5, 2007, which was released after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report on Climate Change.[23] Economist and Fraser Institute Senior Fellow Ross McKitrick served as co-ordinator of the ISPM [1]. Desmogblog leaked a late draft of the Fraser Institute ISPM in the runup to the IPCC official release [2]. In 2003, Professor Ross McKitrick is known for his opposition to the Endangered Species Act in Canada, and is the author of Taken By Storm, which denies climate change. McKitrick is also a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute.

Kenneth Green held the positions of Chief Scientist and Director of Centre for Studies in Risk, Regulation, and Environment at the Fraser Institute from 2002 to 2005. While at the Institute, Kenneth Green published many anti-Kyoto and climate change skeptical articles, notably "The Science Isn't Settled: The limitations of climate change models"[24] together with Tim Ball and Steven Schroeder. As reported in the Huffington Post, "The Fraser Institute received $120,000 from ExxonMobil in 2003-‘04. Fraser Institute Foundation President Michael Walker said the funding paid for the work of researcher Kenneth Green, who served as chief scientist at Fraser Institute between 2002-2005." [25]

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Barry Cooper is former Senior Fellow at The Fraser Institute and a professor of political science at the University of Calgary. [3] He is "affiliated" with the Friends of Science, an Alberta-based anti-Kyoto astroturf group. [4]